Bidvest Wits chief executive Derek Blanckensee, the last of the "Three Musketeers" who guided the fortunes of the club for more than 25 years, is leaving to take up a position with the 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee.

Bidvest Wits chief executive Derek Blanckensee, the last of the "Three Musketeers" who guided the fortunes of the club for more than 25 years, is leaving to take up a position with the 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee.

The shock news that Blanckensee will follow Safa chief executive Raymond Hack and PSL chief operations officer Ronnie Schloss to other soccer pastures was released yesterday, with even the players seemingly unaware of the administrative shake-up that was brewing in the corridors of Bidvest - the owners of the club.

"I met with the players this morning [yesterday] to assure them the move has nothing to do with the recent poor results of the team," said Blanckensee, who has enjoyed a close association with Safa, going back 33 years to his connections with amateur football.

But while Blanckensee emphasised his long-standing ties with Wits and said he hoped to be able to return to the club that has "defined" his life, after the completion of the World Cup, it was suggested by some that "where there is smoke there is, more often than not, fire".

And the unheralded departure of the Wits boss could well also be connected to the failure of Wits to live up to the high expectations of the dynamic conglomerate that now owns the club. - Sapa